Page 6 of The Rum and The Fox

"Corr, thank ye, mister,” he said with an awed tone.

"Stay there and guide me back and you'll have another, young Master Jaw-Me-Dead."

Ash watched as the boy tucked the coin securely into his threadbare jacket and gave him a definite nod that told Ash he’d still be there a week Monday if he didn’t return. It was a slightly comforting thought, at least, so Ash took his courage in his hands and turned to knock at the door.

After not too many moments, a slight, dark haired maid appeared to whom he gave his card. Her eyes widened as she looked at the fine white paper and the gold embossed writing. Bobbing a hasty curtsey, she disappeared, and a few moments later he was shown into an elegant parlour.

Though the paint work was faded, everything was clean and tidy, and Ash couldn't but remark that it had been furnished in the first style of elegance. Some of the pieces were undoubtedly of great value and antiquity. It was better than he had hoped for, going on the stories Freddie had poured into his ears, and yet …

Ash would have been the first person to admit that he wasn't a man blessed with a powerful intellect, and found he was grateful for the fact on the whole. In most cases, intellectual fellows seemed to be a dashed dull and argumentative lot, and Ash was content to leave them to it. But one would need to be a regular chub to not pick up a sense of when one was being sold Grub Street news, and Ash had the distinct feeling he was being sold a lie. That the young woman had consented to see him alone…that was raising alarm bells all on its own.

So it was with considerable apprehension that he turned to greet Lady Keziah Todd, and felt his breath catch in his throat.

A pair of wide, blue eyes looked back at him in a manner that was frank, to say the least. Her profile was proud and put him strongly in mind of a sculpture of Aphrodite that he'd once admired in some long-forgotten museum, and her hair was thick and framed her face with curls, a rich, dark blonde that glinted in the candlelight.

"Your grace," she said, bobbing a curtsey.

She stared at him, apparently awaiting a reason for him to call on her at this strange hour when they'd not been introduced. Ash found to his frustration that his tongue had been nailed down, and floundered as she looked at him with what was quite clearly growing impatience.

"Am I to suppose you came to call upon my father?" she suggested, with the lift of one imperious eyebrow. "As I'm afraid he is out at present."

"I ... that is, yes. Yes, I did," Ash replied, hoping the smile he was giving her was as warm as it felt. He felt really quite dazed in her presence. She bore herself with a cool, regal manner that was at once intimidating and intriguing.

"Well, it is quite irregular of me to have admitted you," she said, her words as frank as her expression as she looked him over with open curiosity. "But finding a duke on one's doorstep is really too intriguing."

Ash gave a slightly startled bark of laughter, a little wrong footed by her tone, which seemed vaguely mocking.

"I suppose you've come to investigate Lord Todd and see what sort of man he is?" she said, shocking him by the baldness of that statement and by an expression that was teetering on the brink of hostile.

Ash hesitated; he felt suddenly unsure of himself faced with this beautiful and forthright woman. He got the feeling that she was laughing at him and it was unsettling, discomposing him when he never usually floundered in social situations. Pulling himself together, he returned her gaze.

"I have heard that he has been spending a deal of time with my mother, Lady Ashwicke, that is true," he admitted, suddenly wishing he'd worn a slightly less expressive waistcoat, as Lady Todd was staring at it with a look he couldn't read but strongly suspected wasn't one of approval. "As I've been out of town for a few weeks, I merely thought it politic to make myself acquainted with him."

For a moment, a look passed over her face that puzzled him. It was an anxious, uncertain expression that seemed at odds with an otherwise forthright nature. It was quickly gone, however, and she retreated behind a mask of polite indifference.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, in that case," she said, sounding a trifle stiff and rather haughty. "Perhaps another time."

"Yes," he said, smiling despite a strange feeling that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle. "Another time … I hope."

He made his bow and left, though his mind wasn't easy.

"Well, mister?" the link boy said as he walked up to meet Ash. "Told you she was a prime piece, didn't I?"

Ash took a moment to respond, lost in thought. "Eh?" he said frowning and then nodded in agreement. "Indeed, a veritable Aphrodite," he murmured, wondering what it was about her that troubled him so, and wondered how he could contrive to see her again.

Satisfied that his opinion had been seconded, the boy led him back to Royal Crescent while Ash pondered the intriguing Lady Keziah Todd. She'd held herself like a queen, an empress, her eyes cool and full of self-assurance. Yet the dress she'd worn had been ... well, frankly, shabby and ugly. That and the lingering smell of damp in the house suggested that his friends had been right and the viscount was trying desperately to keep up appearances. But there was something else, something behind those cool blue eyes that had called out to Ash, and ... he'd wanted to answer.

Only he didn't have the slightest notion what the question was.

He found himself determined to find out, though.

His first instinct before Lady Todd had presented herself had been to tell his mother to steer far and wide of Lord Todd, but it also told him that if he did that, he'd never see Keziah again, or discover what had put that strange mixture of hostility and fragility in her eyes.

For no good reason that he could think of, that troubled him more than he liked to admit.